


Home Again

by raindrop_royal



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Family Reunions, angus is lup and barry's kid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 08:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20061193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raindrop_royal/pseuds/raindrop_royal
Summary: Angus's parents were always a mystery that even the boy detective couldn't solve. The events of Story and Song help him figure it out.





	Home Again

**Author's Note:**

> lmao catch that really obvious but very small second citadel ref

"Hello, guys. It's me again." Angus sat at the edge of the Voidfish's tank, watching the light shine and warp and make shapes on the ceiling. He smiled softly; the water felt good on his bare legs.  
"Did you see what I did today? I helped the sirs get to their next mission! I was very nervous because I'm just a small boy and I've never done anything like that before, but Avi told me it went okay!" His eyes flicked to the water below. The Voidfish brushed gently against his foot, its tendrils wrapping around his ankle and tugging playfully. He patted the Voidfish, reveling feeling its smooth skin on his palm. His thoughts drifted back to his parents -- had they been as intelligent as him? Were they warm and welcoming or closed off? -- and felt the familiar fog drift over his mind. He was never able to remember any details about his parents; they disappeared long before he was able to commit anything about them to memory, his grandfather had told him.  
The Voidfish bucked under Angus's hand, drawing his attention once again. When he glanced, the lights inside the Voidfish were lit up, fading before his eyes. A hypothesis formed in the boy's mind. Carefully, he rounded his forefront thoughts back to his parents, watching as the small lights grew brighter and dimmer in tandem with his thoughts. He knew, distantly, what this meant, but he couldn't grasp it tightly enough. Eventually, he let the thought fade; it would be stored away to be used another time. With a sigh, the boy climbed down from the tank and went to bed.

Angus felt himself shaking as he watched a whole human man climb out of Taako's bag. His mind fizzed; there was something about this man that caused him to feel the way he did when he first reached the moon base. After a bit of fumbling, the four -- the man whose name was Barry Bluejeans, Taako, Merle, and himself -- made their way into the director's private chambers, each taking a sip from the second Voidfish's ichor. For a blissful second, Angus felt calm and comforted. Then that moment ended.  
Everything hurt. Angus felt all the pain of being a starving child, left outside of the big spaceship that had just appeared one day. It was dawn and he hadn't been fed in hours. He bawled big colicky tears at the rising sun. Angus remembered being picked up, remembered soft hands, gently caressing his face, a voice, lilting and melodic, singing a lullaby to him. He remembered being hugged close, surrounded by the warmth of two bodies, and being fed, feeling secure.  
Angus remembered learning to talk.  
"Angus! Say 'Mama'," came that melodic voice.  
"No, no, say 'Papa'," came that other voice, the gruff one. He remembered their coos and cheers when his first word was uttered. He remembered being held on someone's hip, dancing around, being tossed into the air and laughing as he was caught. He remembered the bright times that came after his tragic first few hours of life. Then he remembered the shadows on the man's face, the ones that appeared the moment the woman disappeared. He remembered touching the man’s face and feeling the short hairs there, those memories blending with the memories of the old man who took care of him while his parents were gone. Then… nothing. He only had the old man, who called himself 'grandpa'. There were no more memories of Mama or Papa, just a shadow that sometimes darkened his window, fading the moment he rose to get a better look. He was four when he picked up his first Caleb Cleveland novel, five when he solved his first mystery, six and seven and eight when his grandpa, senile and withering, let him go out on his own, nine and ten when people started hiring the boy detective to solve their problems. He was barely ever home anymore; his grandpa had a caretaker, so he wasn't too worried. He spent his nights in the houses of clients, often being taken care of by women with voices not quite as lilting as hers, by men with voices not nearly as gruff as his.  
When he joined the Bureau, when he met the Director for the first time, he felt something fizz at the back of his mind, some lost memory that only now arose. It was an argument. He remembered so clearly being cradled, his sensitive ears padded against the voices that were threatening to be raised.  
"Lup, Barry, I love you, and I know that you want a… a normal life, but look at where we are! Look at who we are! Look at everything we've done! you can't care for a child with… with all that behind you! For goodness sake, you two are liches!"  
"'Cretia, he was abandoned. I found him outside the ship! I found him! I can't just leave him to die!" That lilting voice he was so fond of sounded so much scarier when it was raised.  
"Lup--"  
"I'm not saying that you should leave him in the woods or something! Leave him with someone, some family or someone who wants a child!"  
Angus remembered one last thing before he came to.  
"Angus, Papa has to go away for a bit. Grandpa will take care of you. I'll visit when I can." His tiny hand wrapped around a finger, dwarfed. "Angus, we love you so, so much. I promise, I'll bring her back and we can complete again. I love you, my beautiful boy." A rough, stubble-lined kiss pressed itself into his forehead. That was the last thing Angus remembered his father.

When Angus awoke, he was dumbfounded by the information in his head. His mother and father, so foggy only an hour ago, were now clearer than glass. He looked to the man that, mere minutes ago, he had been wary of. With tear-filled eyes and a shaky voice, he spoke.  
"F… Father?" The man turned. He stared for a moment, brow furrowed under the weight of recognition.  
"Angus? Is that… Is that really you?" Barry reached toward Angus, his hands stopping centimeters from the boy's face as though he was afraid to touch him. Angus closed the space, leaning his face into his father's touch.  
"It's me." Barry cracked, a sob escaping his throat as he pulled Angus, his son, his beautiful boy into a tight, long-overdue hug.

The world was ending. Angus heard the screams, the explosions, and kicked into panic mode. He used what Taako taught him to build a barrier between the dark tendrils that threatened his home and the dome where they were hiding. For a moment, just a breath, Angus paused his construction to take in the landscape : the backdrop of the apocalypse starkly contrasted with the white colour scheme of the moon base. What a beautiful place, he thought. Angus turned from the scene to see the three sirs aiming their weapons at the director. Angus counted his breaths, watching the situation unfold before him. Someone suggested leaving; Barry protectively threw an arm around Angus.  
"Please don't go," Angus found himself saying. "Don't leave us. Please." He felt more tears welling up and curled into the man's embrace, sobbing loudly. He was scared, so scared; getting part of his family back would mean nothing if he would just disappear again. Then there was a crash, and when Angus turned back, there were monsters in the room. Without even a first thought, Angus found himself at Taako's side, his wand drawn and in the dueling position. It was a hard battle; Angus got hit some, to the horror of his father, but he kept getting up. It was almost natural to be fighting like this. He was a second late in asking permission when Taako got hit and lost the Umbrastaff. There was something familiar about the staff's weight in his hand, but that was neither here nor there. Angus had been practicing his magic; he was good, but not nearly good enough to cast the fireball that came barrelling out of the Umbrastaff in that moment. In a panic, he threw the staff back to Taako and, after a moment's hesitation, watched in shock as Taako snapped the staff over his knee.  
It was like a bomb went off in the room. Angus fell to his knees, blocking his eyes from the bright wreath of flames that erupted out of the Umbrastaff. Then, standing there, coated, wrapped, covered in flames, was Angus's mother. She turned, her long red cloak billowing out as she whipped to face her brother. For the first time in nearly ten years, Angus heard that woman's voice.  
"You're dating the grim reaper?"

There was no time for anything more than a wide-eyed greeting before Angus was whisked away by Davenport, before all hell really broke loose, before he led an army, his mother, spectral and beautiful, and his father, strong and sturdy, at his side. He fought hard and long, shooting spells off without a moment's hesitation, feeling power, feeling inspiration coursing through his veins from Johann's song. Then the fight was over. The skies cleared, the colour returned to the world... And there they were : Lucretia, Davenport, Magnus, Merle, Taako. And Lup and Barry. His mother, his father.  
"Is it over," he gasped out. He wasn't given a chance to say anything to his parents; Taako lifted Angus up and he shouted, screamed, sang the good news, and the people cheered, loud and long, and they danced and embraced and Carey and Killian ran through the crowd, whooping at the tops of their lungs, and Angus felt like doing the same when he was set back down on the ground. Instead, he launched prestidigitation into the air, creating fireworks so vibrant that the crowd turned to watch. Satisfied, Angus sat on the ground and, for the first time since this madness started, he took a deep, sweet breath.

Hours after the battle, Angus, Lup, and Barry were cooling off, silently staring at each other. They were in one of the breakrooms, the door locked. Inoculated or not, Angus had trouble wrapping his head around the fact that the invisible, almost nonexistent people he'd been talking at since he was able to speak full sentences were sitting right in front of him. Lup was as curled into Barry as she could be, a single, iridescent tear occasionally coursing down her spectral cheek. Angus lightly cleared his throat, making the two adults jolt to attention.  
"M-Mama?" One word. That was all it took for Lup to burst into tears and, for a moment, forget her ghostly state of being. She tried to gather Angus to her chest, but her hands passed right through him, which made her cry harder. It took her a few minutes to calm herself. Angus looked at her, feeling hope and love and familiarity well up within him. He moved to sit between Barry and Lup, gingerly nestling himself between the two of them.  
"Mama," he intoned quietly. "Could you… sing that song? The one you sang when I was a baby?" With a sniffle, Lup nodded, arranging herself to give, at the very least, the illusion of cuddling her son close. Despite her state and her tears, she took a deep breath and began to sing.  
"Meet me by the river  
Where the elderberries grow,  
Where stars are silver.  
No one has to know."

The days went by quickly. It took nearly a week for Angus to be able to hug his mother again, but when he did, it was worth the wait. They clung to each other for as long as they could before duty pulled them apart.  
Between rebuilding cities and helping people find each other and his parents' jobs as reapers, Angus hardly had time to get to know them. It was nearly a year later that Angus finally, finally got the chance to sit down with his mother and father and simply talk.  
"-- and Taako was blasting spells off randomly which caused a really cool explosion!" Angus was in the middle of regaling his parents -- that was still odd to say -- with a story from the Bureau when his mother leant in and kissed his cheek. It set off his nigh-uncontrollable blush as she hugged him tightly.  
"I love you so much, my boy. I'm gonna make up for all the time I missed, I promise." She paused, mischievous in the way she wrapped her arms around the boy. "And that means… doing this!" With a swift movement, she lifted Angus from his chair, carrying him to the couch and launching him into the cushions to the soundtrack of his uncontrollable laughter. Barry followed, smiling widely and joining in as he watched his wife tickle their son relentlessly. When the three were out of breath, Barry sat himself on the couch, gathering Lup into his lap, and then sitting Angus in hers. The two adults, obviously exhausted from their work, nodded off quickly, while Angus stayed awake for a few minutes. He settled himself in comfortably, nestled between his parents.  
"Goodnight, Mama. Goodnight, Papa. I'm so glad you're here." With that, he drifted off into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> ango mcdango, small genius and resident badass? hell yeah his parents are barold fucking bluejeans and lup goddamn taaco


End file.
